


Happiness can't last forever

by AbsolXGuardian



Series: After the Day of Story and Song [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: A LOT of Character Death, Angst, Gen, Post canon, The balance campaign, Timeskips, a lot of those too, a whole lot of it, fantasy lifespan differances, forgotten realms tie in, lengthy elpilouge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 15:46:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11924091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsolXGuardian/pseuds/AbsolXGuardian
Summary: They did it! They won. The Hunger has been defeated and the world is healing.But there is always something. In this case, it is the difference in a families' lifespan, the curse of the gods.





	Happiness can't last forever

And that was the ending they earned. The heroes of so many realities could live out the rest of their lives in peace. Everyone knew their story. But there is a fate that befalls many adventuring groups, due to their interspecies nature. The fate of death. Not the kind that comes from facing down a beholder. The kind that comes in a soft bed with somber family members.

 

Oddly enough, it was the human fighter, Magnus who left his body behind first. He was always the one who took the most risks, but he had found something to live for. The human, Lucretia, who had years stolen from her, her heart was still beating when Magnus’ stopped.

 

* * *

 

Taako was slowly stirring some fantasy ramen noodles as he sat in his own home, all the lights off. He didn’t need them. He had darkvision. One of the many boons of being an elf. The other one was that you looked the fucking same as you did 50 years ago after you stopped being resurrected every cycle, but your best friend is  _ fucking _ dead.

 

He heard the click of the lights and mopingly raised his head off to see Kravitz entering, applying his mortal glamor. “Uh, babe, why are you eating my food?”

 

Taako pulled his spoon out of the ramen, as if he didn’t realize it was there, but didn’t say anything.

 

Kravitz stared at him for a second, and then it hit him. “Oh. Right. Magnus died today.”

 

Silently he pulled out the chair facing Taako, the guest chair. Normally he sat right next to his husband, in the chair to the elves’ left. “Sorry I’ve have gotten so desensitized to death. I’ve seen entire nations fall and taken in necromancers who were only trying to bring their spouse or child back to life.”

 

No reaction from Taako.

 

Kravitz inhales. Usually, when he has to deal with death, it’s  _ “Sorry, bud, but those are the rules and you’re coming with me.”  _ Well, there’s no reason not to tell him.

 

“Listen,” Kravitz reaches out his hand to take Taako’s, but the elf keeps them around the bowl, “the reason I’ve been working late so much is that I’ve been trying to convince the Raven Queen to let Magnus not join the soul sea right away. She agreed, and he’s currently on a nice little island with Julia and their two dogs.”

 

With that, Taako looked up from the uneaten fantasy commercial food, lifting his ears a tad, a small spark of hope in his eyes.

 

Realizing what his love was thinking, Kravitz had to dash those hope. Not making eye contact he stated plainly, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t get any visitation rights. Not even Lup or Barry can go there. The Raven Queen will take them from the island when they’re ready. She won’t even let me near anymore.”

 

Taako returned to staring into a now cold bowl of ramen noodles.

 

Something broke inside Kravitz. Something he hasn’t felt in millennia. Pure unadulterated grief. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t felt emotion after becoming the first paladin of the Raven Queen, but grief wasn’t one of them. He hadn’t felt much other than frustration and relief before he started dating Taako. But now he felt grief, not only from seeing his husband like this but for Magnus. A human who, in his short life, lived for so much. Who spent so much time trying to train a dog who wouldn’t be afraid of his death-like scent.

 

“Listen, babe,” he reached out Taako’s hand again, but got the same result. He then trained his eyes past the elf’s head and towards one of the cabinets. “Listen- if Jergal had his way, all seven of you would be gods now. But other than Istus and Pan, no one else has voted in favor of ascension. And the Raven Queen has made her views on giving adventurers immortally very clever. The last time that happened, she ended up basically babysitting Bhaal, Myrkul, and Bane. Kelemvor and Sehanine Moonbow have even argued that the 100 years you guys spent traveling should be taken from your life spans.”

 

No reaction from Taako.

 

“It was hard enough saving Lup and Barry from the eternal stockade. And you guys the first ti-” Kravitz cut himself off. He could see that this was a lost cause.  

 

Silently, Kravitz got up and went to prepare his own bowl of fantasy ramen noodles. Normally, the couple would be eating a gourmet meal, but the reaper couldn’t cook at all. Taako even had to ban him from even trying do anything more than heating up a meal.

 

* * *

 

As one would expect, less than a year later, Lucretia was gone. It was a surprise she managed to live that long, considering how hard she worked with the Bureau of Benevolence. In fact her death was surprising to anyone other than the reaper trio, who told her to slow down the weeks following her death. Luckily, she died instantly from the heat attack and didn’t feel any pain. Unluckily, everyone was scattered across northern Faerun at the time, so it took a while to assemble everyone for a funeral.

 

Although her family knew she wished for a private funeral, she ended up having a large one on the moon base with all the past and present BoB members. Sloane and Hurley used their dryad magic to weave her body into a tree on the main green. Sadly, this was only a form of memorial. It was only due to the magic of the Gaia Sash that they became dryads without the magic of a powerful fae. Mystra then made the tree her own holy site, in honor of the most powerful Abjurationist who ever lived.

 

The now elderly, Killian and Carey then became the joint leaders of the Bureau, but most of the real power was given to Alenda, a half elf who had been by Lucretia’s side during their work after The Day of Story and Song.

 

* * *

 

It was Killian who died next. The orc had lived a surprisingly long life for her species, but that was only because she didn’t fall in battle. She didn’t surpass her natural lifespan of 70 odd years. 

 

Her funeral was a grand affair. Orc tribes traveled from all over Faerun, under a rare banner of peace to honor whom they had offered to make the Grand Chieftain after she defended the world from The Hunger.

 

But in Carey there was anger. Her wife, her beautiful wife, had died. Fire burned in her. Barry warned her against being risky, but the dragonborn didn’t listen. She would have walked to the ends of Toril for her wife, and now she would. Abdicating her role in the Bureau to Alenda, she set off towards the far eastern kingdom of Thay, ruled by powerful wizards. The great technological and magic revolution spearheaded by the Millers had only spread to the areas closest to the Sword Coast, Thay was still traditional and unknown.

 

Carey Fangbattle’s eventual fate is unknown, but many legends survive of her personally marching over to the Astral Plane and challenging Mykull for her wife’s soul. Many contradictory versions exist of the tale of The Dragonborn who Challenged Death (the exact god changes based on the culture), but the myth has spread all over Toril, but not all versions connect her with the dragonborn in the Story of the World, but every version of the tale is a love story. She is even hailed as a god-hero in Tymanther.

 

 

* * *

 

The death that hurt the most was Angus’. To Merle, Taako, Kravitz, Lup, and Barry he was still a child. To Mavis and Mookie, he was their peer. The greatest boy detective and the greatest wizard was still mortal. And after that, was still human. His death managed to be a private affair, with only his adoptive family, closest colleagues, and adoptive dragonborn and gensai kids attending. Like Magnus, he lived a full and good life, teaching children the ways of magic.

 

The entire Sword Coast magic community went into mourning after his death. Every monk of Candlekeep honors the week of his death every year with black robes and completely free services. A statue made of donated silverware stands in the courtyard.

 

 

* * *

 

Barry is leaning over the balcony looking at the stars. Magnus, Lucretia, Killian, Carey, and now Agnus. And he looks the same as he did 85 years ago. Even Merle has aged more than him. 221 years is way too long for a human to be alive, but here he is. He barely looks different from when he left his native world.

 

Lup joins him. She’s wearing a recreation of an IRPE jacket and has dropped the fire glamor from her hair. She doesn’t met his eyes. “You know what my aunt said?” she starts, “Never fall in love with anyone other than an elf. No matter how hard they try, they will break your heart.” When she said that, she tired to do a funny impression.

 

No reaction from Barry.

 

She puts her arm around him. “Now look at us. We’re gonna be like this for all eternity-” Her voice cracks.

 

Still no reaction, so the elf untangles herself and moves back to her original position. “Listen, I know this is hard for you. Agnus, he was just a little kid- well he isn’t any more, but it still feels like it was only a few years ago I wrecked his macaroons. It was really 85 wasn’t it?” She sighs.

 

“That’s just how it is for elves. We were already 120 when we started on the Starblaster. Heck, one of our first jobs was with a caravan leader. One of our last was with his son. You know that’s why the elves are the least integrated. It’s just fucking weird.”

 

Still nothing.

 

Lup turns towards the stars. “They’re beautiful aren't’ they? No matter where we went, the stars were always like that. Just...little dots of light off in the distance. Yeah, they looked different each cycle, but the night sky was always sprinkled with dots like that. It’s nice you know, it’s it? That there’s something out there that outlives an elf. -And no, don’t you go ruining it with your science. I know we’re all star _ dust _ , but, stars are something that stay around.”

 

* * *

 

 

Although elfs and dwarfs live long, one lives significantly longer than the other. And Merle was always significantly older than everyone else. But there is cruel irony in that he lived 10 years longer than Agnus. One night, he laid down by the beach and didn’t wake up. In the morning, flowers had already grown from the sand to cover him.

 

Mavis and her wife, a Felbarean noble girl, became the new rulers of Bottlenose Cove, although it was Mookie who supplied future heirs. He took over ExtremeTeenAdventurers, following in his father’s true legacy.

 

In the years following Merle’s death, the flowers spread up and down the beach. Druids and botanists traveled from all the way up and down the Sword Coast to study them. They were eventually dubbed a new species, known as salt flowers. There’s no natural way to grow them, they don’t have seeds, but they continually spread up and down the coast line, connected by roots in the sand.

 

 

* * *

 

It was 200 years until the next death. Magic and technology marched on. Most humans alive then didn’t even know the original Story of the World, but what they were taught in school. Taako’s commercial empire continues to grow, as does the Miller’s magic school, now headed by Lucas’ great-great-grandson. Ren remained a loyal partner to Taako, taking over the business side of things, while Taako focused on the marketing part. And the Golden Age is spreading. The Refugee diamond mine was exhausted. But for once Faerun was safe. No Spellplague, no Time of Troubles, no Hunger. The salt flowers had spread the entire length of the Sword Coast and were projected to soon line the entire continent. Solane’s and Hurley’s tree remained strong, so they remained alive too. 

 

And Davenport traveled up and down the Sword Coast, becoming a favorite of everyone in the port towns. He was also a local hero in all the nearby islands, from the Moonshaes to the North. All seafolk knew the name of Cap'nport.

 

One night, Davenport came into port in Kythyss, one of the port towns of the island Alaron in the Sea of Moonshae, on the tails of a storm. He was greeted with his usual small hero's welcome, and after promising to bring a problem to the attention of the BoB, he settled at a room in the inn for the night, stretching his creaking bones.

 

The storm eventually reached the the town, battering it all night. In the morning, Davenport had come down with a serious form of pneumonia and most of the ships in the harbor were severely damaged.  

 

For a myriad of cultural and logistic reasons, the Golden Age hadn’t spread to the island lands too well, and until the boats were repaired, there was no way to contact the mainland. All the healers tried their best, but the gnome was too old and it was his time. He eventually slipped away.

 

Weeks later, news managed to reach Taako and the reaper trio. Dreen, the current head of the BoB and the child of one of Agnus’ dragonborn wards, attempt to send a crew to bring Davenport back home for a burial, but he had already been given a hero’s send off by the people of Kythyss. Once repaired, his boat had been set on fire and launched into the ocean, per Alaron traditions. Although his remaining family lamented the loss, they knew that their captain had no real home, and wouldn’t have a problem with going down with his ship, even if it was staged.

 

* * *

 

About 50 years later, Mavis died peacefully in her sleep, a year after her wife. Bottlenose Cove had been brought from a small beachside community, to a powerful trading competitor of Thornhold, an ally of Waterdeep, and a place where the next generation of adventurers were continuously molded.

 

Tacko and his family stood apart from the crowd during the joint funeral of Countess Mavis Highchurch and coronation of Earl Merle Highchurch II. The four of them wore blackcloaks covering their faces (“A fashion disaster,” Taako said, “but we do need to be undercover”). They watched as a ceremonial crown of salt flowers was placed on Merle II’s head by the elderly Mookie(who would die 2 years afterward).

 

“I can’t believe Mavis is dead,” Barry stated, looking at the ground and holding his wife’s hand.

 

Taako sighed as silent tears streaked down his cheeks. “She was a child! A child!” he stage whispered.

 

“Not a child,” Kravitz stated, his heart heavy for once. “She was an adult. She lived her natural lifespan. She loved, she lost, she ruled.”

 

“But still hurts,” Lup spat out bitterly.

 

“This is why reapers- any oath of the ancients paladin- is discouraged from having mortal connections. They’re nothing more than threads made of dust.” Kravitz said, focusing above on the sky stage where the new earl was giving his acceptance speech.

 

Taako looked at his hands. Other than missing the elfish glow he lost in Wonderland (he’d stopped using glamor decades ago), they were smooth and unlined. He’d watch his friends- no family- die around him, and he looked the same. It was good for marketing. He did have to replace himself with a look-alike or use old fantasy photos, just the same him.

  
  


Who was he kidding? His long lifespan was nothing but a curse. That was why elves only accepted the Golden Age in science and technology. They remained just as reclusive in Evereska and the High Forest before the hunger. He put his hands back down

 

“I was already older than 100 fucking years when we got on the Starblaster.” Taako said, as if he was talking about the weather, if that one sentence wasn’t dripping with bitterness.  

 

The ceremony concluded with raucous applause, and the four strange guests slipped away. There was no one else except for eachother. Taako didn’t care great great grandchild of Agnus, or however many generations there was. Sure there was still Ren, but she was really just a business partner. And a dryad duo isn’t much for conversation, especially considering all the energy it takes to go beyond Goldcliff. Or the fact they have a telepathic connection between each other. Or the fact dyads typically have tunnel vision(for Solane and Hurley, their life was nothing more than battlewagon racing, which is healthier than the usual dream of revenge against a more powerful fae).

 

* * *

 

Kravitz, Barry, and Lup were all seated around a table in Kravitz’s old room in the Raven Queen’s palace. The trio usually lived in Taako’s penthouse, but tonight they needed to get away. Taako was currently one of the dreaded Waterdeep noble meetings with Ren and he wouldn’t notice them missing.

 

The room was sparse. Kravitz barely spent any time her back when he had nothing more to do than his duties. There was no bed, just a desk, a table, and bookshelves filled with dust covered books on necromancy. The three were silently playing a fusion game of Knucklebones and Three-dragon Ante their designed themselves for 3-6 players(later mass produced by Taako Inc).

 

Lup tossed her ball up in the air above her knucklebones, but didn’t react as it landed, rolling off the table and bringing 3 bones down with it. She just stared at the remaining bones, saying nothing.

 

Barry place his hand face down on the table. “Babe, you ok?” he asked, breaking the silence that the game had been played in for the past hour.

 

Lup just mumbled something. It was so quiet, it was more like she simply mouthed the words.

 

“Uh, can you speak up?” Barry asked, reaching out his hand. Kravitz had place his cards on the table too and watched silently.

 

“I SAID I’M GOING TO OUT LIVE TAAKO!” Lup swung back to face her husband, tears quickly running down her face. Kicking her chair out, she strode over to the window above the desk. She was still wearing her reaper clothes, even if she didn’t have any glamor active. Her fire patterned cape lay still over her back.

 

Barry moved to get up, but Kravitz got out of his chair and held his hand out in front of him. “It’s true you know,” He said solemnly. Kravitz knew if he had bothered to summon more than a simple glamor cover to his body, he’d be crying too.

 

“I-”

 

Barry returned to his seat. Kravitz remained standing, but his dropped his arm. Kravitz felt like he was being pulled down by thick oil, like the hunger, but one thousand times worse.

 

“Listen, Barry- Lup you too. I’ve lived through so much as the Raven Queen’s bounty hunter. I can barely remember the time back when I wanted to somehow become a conductor growing up in my small seaside village. Waterdeep had just been established, not that we knew anything about that. Do you know what that means? I lived through the  _ fucking _ Time of Troubles. You know what that is? I was left powerless and had to travel across Faerun for 5 months to find the mortal the Raven Queen was reincarnated as. Thousands of souls escaped then.. Oh and once we finally got everything figured out, other than Baal dying, the freaking NETHERILAN CITY OF THULTANTHAR just appeared floating in the air! Don’t forget the Spellplague, when the goddess of magic was  _ murdered.  _ Or the complete mess of the Second Sundering! You guys were lucky to have missed that by a century. I don’t think Faerun could have handle that and the Relic Wars during the Sundering. And it took me until the Relic Wars for me to get all the souls back, and there’s still some still I’ve missed.”

 

Kravitz looks around at Barry, now slumped in his chair and Lup still staring out the window.

 

He took a deep breath to banish the emotion that was starting to bubble over, but the next parts of his speech was punctured by cracks and gasps. “Listen, you know what the point of all that was? Being a reaper is hard. And not because of having to bring people in, it’s who you’re bringing in. A local necromancer who just wanted to raise some undead to protect their village from a corrupt mercenary group. Someone who just wanted to bring their love back. A soul who was just summoned from the astral plane and then bound to an object. But the worst part- you can’t have mortal connections. You’re gonna outlive anyone who was ever and ever be born. Trapped by the FUCKING system you support!”

 

With that Kravitz flung the wooden table to the ground. All the bones and cards fell to the ground, rendering the game unfinishable. Fire burned in him. Dark righteous fire. Like the purple smoke glamor that was unconsciously forming at his feet.

 

The sound smash broke Lup out of her stupor in time for her to turn around to see Kravitz marching out of the room, all of his reaper glamor on. It was almost complete except for his human shell still remaining.

 

“Oh gods-” Lup started.

 

“We’re fucked,” the couple said in unison. They didn’t know what Kravitz would do. He was angry. But even an experienced reaper would fall do a goddess like the Raven Queen.

 

The couple ran after Kravitz, pushing their emotions away. They ran down the sky bridge overlooking the spirit sea in time to find Kravitz summoning his scythe in front of the slightly grand doors that served as a backdoor into their goddess’ throne room.

 

“NO STOP!” Lup cried, casting a mediocre fireball at Kravitz.

 

The reaper whipped around to see the elf and human skidding to a stop, his eyes wide from shock at his own actions.

 

The scythe and all the glamor dropped away as Kravitz brought his hands up to his face. “Oh gods. What was I thinking!”

 

“Krav,” Lup started, “Listen it’s gonna be ok- oh who am I fucking kidding. It’s not ok. We’re trapped between a rock and a hard place. But listen, if it wasn’t for you being a reaper- you never would have met Taako. And if we didn’t become ones we’d currently be down there in the stockade.” Tears were falling down her cheeks. “We just have to make the best out of this situation. We just gonna live and love. We got 700 years to do it, we have to just make it count.

 

* * *

 

And so they did. The Taako media empire grew, while other, more literal empires, rose and fell(well only like two, but you get the point). Taako had retired at the ripe old age of 550(not really that old for an elf), leaving the empire in the hands of Ren for a while and an air genasi descendant of Angus' kids. Taako Inc was in capable hands and wouldn’t be split up anytime soon. Like an inverse Fantasy Alexander the Great. 

 

The reaper trio retired away from the bustle of New Waterdeep and the descendants of those they knew, to a nice seaside-ish cottage near The Cloakwoods. Taako would cook up a continuous stream of homemade meals for the next 150 years. But it disturbed the reapers to see their brother, their lover, their friend age while they remained the same. Sometimes they used glamor to appear aged, but it was all an illusion. They didn’t have trouble bending down to pick up a spoon from the floor.

 

As Taako aged, he became softer. He took up Lucretia’s habit of recording the native plants and animals in his own journal. He set up a bird feeder with his own custom mix, so that the couples could watch them gather as the sun set over the sea. The four of them also all tried their hand at knitting at different times (“It’s an old person thing, it’s it?”). It was Taako who was the best at it, although once his hands became weaker, it was harder.

 

Lup took up art, primarily glassblowing. Using her flames, she created beautiful intimate vases and windows. She took to stringing glass beads, animated with their own unearthly fire inside, along the tree line of their part of the Cloakwoods, to ward off those who would do their sanctuary harm.

 

Kravitz had long accepted a animals having a natural fear of him. Unlike Lup or Barry, he became a reaper upon death, his bones are true form. And animals could sense that. But one night Barry came across a wounded fox, and nursed it back to health the mundane way. It took a particular liking to Kravitz, and even once it was better, it would return every night for a decade, acting like a trained dog. And even after it stopped, sometimes other foxes would return, always picking Kravitz out from the group.

 

But Barry was the closest to the animals. Sometimes the twins would ask him for some herbs, and he’d come back with some sort of injured or hungry animal with him.

 

But something like this couldn’t last forever. It was subtle at first. Taako having to take a midday nap. Not being able to go out after a rainstorm. Moving slower. Although his family appeared his age, they weren’t. And he knew they dropped that glamor once they went off to work and left him along.

 

It happened while the reapers were away. They entered back into the Material Plane on their doorstep, dropping their intimidation glamor and applying their age one. They entered, finding the house unusually quiet. The fantasy CD player had reached the end of whatever disc it was playing, something Taako never let happen.

 

They found him in the rocking chair, his eyes half open, a small smile on his face. His hands held knitting needles as a half finished tapestry covered his lap.

 

It all ended there. This perfect world they had created. It was gone. There was no screaming, no crying. The only funeral was Barry using reaper powers to dissolve the body to dust on the wind. Taako’s clothes dissolved too, but the unfinished tapestry was left there. 

 

The trio said nothing as they placed wards over the house. There was nothing. It was worse than sadness and anger. Nothing, but nothing from necessity. And then they left.

 

The foxes learned to stop coming for their ancestor’s friend. The birds learned the feeder wouldn’t be refilled. Poachers began to question the sanctity of the “fae beads” as their magic faded and their turned dull.

 

* * *

 

For millennia, the Raven Queen was served by her three reapers. The one of earth, the one of flame, and the one of darkness. And they were nothing more than that. They had mortal names, but no mortals to call them by it. They remembered their life. The world that they saved, but it felt like a dream. It was so long ago. More disasters befell Toril, and the Day of Story and Song had faded.

 

The reapers had their own mythos developed around them, as if they were gods. But the worship and belief never became strong enough to ascend them. Sometimes they were seen as the three gods of death. The one of flame was Bane, for she was the fire of strife. The one of darkness, Myrkul, for he was close to the dead and would turn a necromancer's servants on them. The one of earth was Bhaal, although this was the rarest of beliefs. With his golems, he would strike down an escapee with brute force.

 

Although these weren’t true, as the reapers were really the avatars of the death goddess who worked behind the scenes, the Raven Queen, the effects were felt, for that is how gods work. Bane became a goddess and the elements of the reapers were permanently incorporated into their designs.

 

\--------------------------------------

 

Three adventurers come upon a house in the woods. There is no path leading up. Suspicious, the paladin uses his Divine Sense and comes up empty. The druid casts a Detect Magic spell, and only finds powerful wards, so the three enter the house.

 

It is warm, inviting, and rustic, if a little old fashioned. But something feels off. Items are still strewn about the place. A recipe book is open on the counter, with a note that says “ _ Maybe we could make this for dinner. Sorry, had to leave early -L _ ” But this place has been warded for centuries, extremely well, if the calendar is anything to go off of. The sorcerer even manages to whip up a meal from the stuff in the house, even if the rest of her group is hesitant.

 

The rocking chair contains the start of a knitted tapestry. On the table, there is a design for the rest of the it. It depicts 11 birds. 7 of them are larger, and each is a different species, except for 2 of the seven, who are the same. Each bird was to have a name stitched into it. The Lover, The Twins (this one spanned the 2 matching birds), The Protector, The Peacemaker, the Wordless One, and The Lonely Journal-Keeper. There is another set of names for the smaller birds, being The Reaper, The Dragon, The Fighter, and The Child. The druid takes the material, tapestry, and the plans so that they could finish it at some later date.

The paladin remains suspicious. This had to be a trap. If it wasn’t, why would it even be here? In his careful investigation of every part of the house, he manages to find some magic items carefully tucked away in a chest.

 

The first is a fancy glaive, which the sorcerer claims for herself as it’s  a powerful spellcasting focus. They will find that it also has Mulligan’s Blessing, an ability to conserve spell slots of failed attacks.

 

The next item is an unassuming wooden staff. The druid is the one who notices it, and will use it as a replacement for their own staff that was damaged recently. The new one is not only more powerful, but the same artificer who will identify the enchantments on the glaive, will reveal that it allows double spell slots to be spent on a spell to make it more likely to succeed.

 

Two more items are found. They will eventually be used by the paladin, once his friend’s use of theirs assure him it’s safe. Before then, the bear mask and bear tooth are simply placed away in the paladin’s bag. However, the Retribution and Gambler’s luck would save them many times.    

 

* * *

 

This is the nature of endings. Bonds may hold the universe together, but time is a force that can break even the strongest of them. Time is a limited resource, some have more than others. And even those who make the most of theirs together will mourn when it runs out.

**Author's Note:**

> Whew. Hoped you enjoyed this. I tried to get it out as soon after the finale as possible. There were a lot of references to Forgotten Realms stuff in the Sword Coast Adventurer's guide since it's kinda lower level taz canon. Also, the adventuring group at the end is supposed to represent similar classes to the THB. A druid for Merle, because his plant magic is more important to the character than like healing. Sorcerer for Taako because sorcerer magic is genetic, unlike a wizard's. Magnus was hard to choose, but I went with Paladin because it's archetypical lawful good. And because of Magnus' loyalty to Istus. I will probably be writing more one-shots about what happens after the finale using a lot of Forgotten Realms information, but there are no current stable plans. I hope this fic was good for showing off the emotion. I didn't want it to get too long, and with so much ground to cover, I feel I may not have made it emotional enough.
> 
> Also, I usually cross post my fics to ff.net, but I'm not doing it this time. FF.net formatting is kinda tedious. I may stop posting them there all together, but we still have to see.


End file.
